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I'm John LeMasney, and I love great beer. I'm always looking for co-commentary, guest reviews, and dissenting opinions, so feel free to comment or subscribe to my RSS feed. I love hops and Belgian styles, Rogue, Victory, Flying Fish, Flying Dog, Dogfish Head, Founders and other American Craft breweries. I like to photograph and broadcast my tastings, and I'm very interested in the calories in beer. I'm glad you stopped by, please add my site to del.icio.us, friendfeed, or your own favorite social site. I'm trying to spread the word about great beer, and I hope you join me. I'm on twitter, friendfeed, facebook, linkedin and lots of other places as lemasney.

Visuals: Packaging is exquisite, royal. You should expect something very special, and if the BWSA from Schlafly is any indicator, I do. A black tar pit of a brew. Fully opaque, though the pour seemed thinner than this body proves. Thin tan head, almost fully dissipating, with some lace remaining.

Taste: Surprisingly light at first, but a quick flavor of oak, cherries, raisin, and alcohol hit after a second, followed by a longer hoppy burn. Very nice. Caramel, chocolate, and coffee show through. Licorice, taffy. A sweet treat. Needs some dark chocolate and pretzels to set it off.

Palate: Crisp, terricloth, and biting in the end. Hoppy dark finish. Oak is quiet on this comparative to the BWSA, but I don’t miss it. I only enjoy smokiness to a certain point, though there is some here, it is not overwhelming.

Overall: I liked it a lot. There are other less expensive, equally enjoyable imperial stouts, such as Oak Aged Yeti, or even just Yeti, but this was a very nice treat. Thanks, Schlafly.